Texas Tech Today

National Cat Day: Research Shows Pheromones Can Influence Use of Scratching Posts

A study by animal behavior expert John McGlone theorizes cats scratch more due to pheromones left behind from previous cat scratching.

Originally published July 15, 2015

Some widely-sold cat scratchers are not preferred by kittens.

All photos courtesy: John McGlone

Cats have long been some of the most independent and unpredictable animals on the
planet. They were revered by Egyptian pharaohs and have been used as symbols by many
cultures for their grace, elegance and demeanor.

Predicting their behavior, however, has long been a mystery, one which scholars throughout
the ages have studied. Figuring out what a cat wants, when it wants it and how it
wants it has led to numerous theories and studies.

John McGlone, a professor of animal welfare and animal behavior in the Department of Animal and Food Sciences, presented this week his study on cat scratchers, which scratchers cats preferred
and why. His research was delivered during the 2015 Joint Annual Meeting (JAM) of
the American Dairy Science Association (ASDA) and the American Society of Animal Science
(ASAS) in Orlando, Florida.

Using kittens due to their playful nature more than adult cats, McGlone and his research
team tested various cat scratchers to determine which one cats preferred. Knowing
which cat scratcher kittens prefer will help people select effective cat scratchers.
Cat owners want to direct cat scratching towards selected objects rather than having
them scratch furniture, drapes and carpet.

Kitten on s-shaped cardboard scratcher.

The team then used that preferred scratcher to determine what causes kittens to spend
more time scratching. The experimental evidence suggested kittens deposit pheromones
from scratching and from their fur. The thinking is cats are attracted by pheromones,
chemicals excreted or secreted by animals that trigger a social response in members
of the same species.

“We are hypothesizing that kittens are responding to pheromones on the cardboard scratchers
and the next kitten that comes in experiences the scratcher smell of other kittens'
odor and it makes them scratch more,” McGlone said. “We will be able to direct cat
scratching towards preferred objects and away from household objects like furniture.”

Before McGlone and his team could get to why cats scratch certain scratchers more,
they had to go back further to determine which scratchers cats preferred in the first
place.

No empirical data

A walk through the local pet store will reveal dozens of products for cats. The only
problem is there is no real research or consumer-driven information that indicates
which product is the best buy.

“If you're buying a car, you can look up how it performs in fair government tests,
what the miles per gallon is for any car,” McGlone said. “If that's your criteria
for buying a car, you can get one with really good gas mileage. If you pick up a piece
of food at the store you can see what's in it. But you go to a pet store, you can
hardly get any information on anything they are selling. So we began to evaluate this
in our study to see if we could increase or decrease cat scratching.”

Variety of cardboard-type scratchers.

McGlone purchased several types of scratchers – flat, rope, hemp and tower scratchers
as well as making some of their own, utilizing cardboard, carpet and bubble wrap.
Some scratchers were vertical, some were horizontal on the ground and some were on
raised platforms. The idea was to test as many types of scratchers as possible.

An evaluation also had to be done on which cats to use, adult or kittens. Kittens,
unsurprisingly, were more playful and active than adult cats. While it is thought
that adult cats can be manipulated to become more playful when fed dried catnip, as
sold in stores, they determined catnip applied to the scratchers did not change the
rate of scratching.

From there, kittens were placed into a controlled environment with different types
of scratchers and observed to determine which scratcher they preferred. After all
the testing was done, the results showed kittens preferred the cardboard scratcher
in the shape of an ‘S' over all other scratchers.

Kitten with hemp scratcher.

“Nobody's done any sort of official approval for cat scratchers,” McGlone said. “This
was an opportunity to answer these questions and help people and animals.”

Saving the drapes

Now that McGlone had the right type of scratcher and the right kittens, he tested
what made cats use the scratcher longer.

“We do know when a cat grooms itself, it licks the hair all over its body, its paws
included,” McGlone said. “We know a cat is continually applying its scent on itself,
and cat hair is a much more potent stimulator of scratching than is catnip, for example.
That cat hair contains pheromones.”

One at a time, kittens were placed in a controlled environment meant to simulate a
normal living room, with a couch, drapes, carpet and the ‘S' scratcher along with
a human being to both record the kitten's activity and place the kitten on the scratcher
if it wandered off.

The first test determined that kittens preferred an older ‘S' scratcher to a newer
one, which strengthened the hypothesis regarding cat hair and pheromones. But it didn't
completely validate the hypothesis.

In the next test, researchers applied different objects to the scratchers to see if
they induced scratching. The researchers used hair from an adult cat, ground catnip
and catnip oil, applying each to a separate scratcher.

Catnip oil had some effect, but overwhelmingly, kittens preferred the scratcher with
cat hair on it.

Also, researchers discovered that a kitten will scratch a new scratcher for a certain
amount of time, then each subsequent kitten that scratches that scratcher will do
so for increasing time lengths.

McGlone said the theory of cats being territorial doesn't hold up because kittens
have no sense of territory. They're just playing.

“Odors do strange things to animals,” McGlone said. “It makes them eat more, it makes
them more sexually active and it makes them play more.”

The next step, McGlone said, is determining exactly which pheromone affects behavior.
They are doing organic chemistry and animal behavior work to identify the molecules
involved, and once that is determined, that pheromone can be applied to scratchers
to induce play and keep drapes and furniture safe.

“Kittens might stay away from an adult male cat,” McGlone said. “Maybe we can use
pheromones to stop cats from scratching the couch, or maybe if they're so interested
in the cat scratcher they'll forget about the couch. There's more than one way to
get this goal accomplished.”

AboutJohn McGlone

John McGlone is a professor in the Department of Animal and Food Sciences specializing in swine, animal welfare and animal behavior. He is an expert on swine
behavior but also has expertise in the physiology and behavior of domestic animals,
including pets and laboratory animals. His research in animal pheromones has resulted
in numerous products that help control behavior in household pets, including a spray to stop dogs from barking made from pig pheromones. His research in farm animal care has defined farm animal care both at universities
and commercial farm. He was recently honored by the American Veterinary Medical Association
with the AVMA Humane Award, given each year to the top non-veterinarian for his or
her work in promoting animal welfare.

The college also consists of eleven research centers and institutes, including the
Cotton Economics Research Institute, the International Cotton Research Center and
the Fiber and Biopolymer Research Institute.

In 2004, Animal and Food Sciences moved into a new state-of-the-art teaching and research
facility. This new facility includes four multimedia-classrooms, five specialized
teaching & research labs, the largest retail meat cooler on a university campus, and
a retail store (COWamongus).